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A WELSH Ambulance Service leader says he is ‘truly humbled’ after being awarded a fellowship.

Richard Lee, the Trust’s Director of Operations, became one of the first paramedics to receive a Fellowship in Immediate Medical Care from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care on Friday (1 September 2017).

Richard, who lives in Cardiff and works in Cwmbran, completed his Diploma in Immediate Medical Care at the college in 2001, and in 2005 became an examiner for the faculty.

Since then he has examined hundreds of students and became a supervising examiner in 2015.

A former pupil at the Alun School in Mold, Flintshire, he described it as ‘a real honour’ to be recognised with the fellowship, which has only been open to the profession since last year.

Richard said: “Since I joined the ambulance service in 1993 I have met hundreds of fantastic colleagues and patients and strived to blend the best of all of them into my clinical practice and examining.

“I am thrilled to have received this Fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons. It’s a real testament to how far paramedicine has come, and how our colleagues in medicine view our profession, that we are now able to develop to this level.

“The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh was founded in 1505 and to be part of an organisation with such a long history is truly humbling.”

Richard has spent time on the training standards committee and speciality advisory board of the college, as well as being part of the examiner selection process.

He qualified as a paramedic in 1995 and has worked for ambulance services in Oxfordshire, London, Avon and Wales.

In 2004, he moved into management roles, firstly at London Ambulance Service and then at Great Western Hospitals Foundation Trust, where he was manager for unscheduled care services.

Richard joined the Welsh Ambulance Service as Regional Director in 2009 and was appointed Head of Clinical Services in 2012, before taking up his current role in 2016.

Editor’s notes

Picture shows Richard Lee, Director of Operations for the Welsh Ambulance Service, with his Fellowship in Immediate Medical Care from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.